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From the chills of “Bloody Mary” appearing in your mirror to the suspense of “Stranger Calls,” these tales resonate because they tap into our collective fears. This comprehensive look will explore some of the best horror movies inspired by classic urban legends.
Aug 8, 2018 · From the haunted VHS tapes of Japan to the sewer-trawling alligators of the United States, here’s your guide to the best, most bombastic, and occasionally sexy urban-myth-based horror...
- Jordan Crucchiola
- Contributor
- Black Christmas
- When A Stranger Calls
- The Boogeyman
- The Hitcher
- Candyman
- The Curve
- 8mm
- Dead Man on Campus
- Urban Legend: The Trilogy
- The Blair Witch Project
In this horror film about a group of sorority girls who are slowly picked off one-by-one during the holiday season, screenwriter A. Roy Moore based his script both on an urban legend and a real-life serial killer. The urban legend is one that’s repeated through a lot of movies: “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs.” It takes on several iterations, ...
This is the most famous, and arguably the most effective, horror movie to base itself on the legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs. Carol Kane stars as a woman who receives harassing phone calls while babysitting, only to realize to her horror that the calls are coming from inside the house. All of this is wrapped up in the film’s first 20 ...
The bogeyman (alternately spelled “boogeyman”) is one of the most persistent urban legends of all time and seems to have a variant in nearly all cultures across the world. In its most basic form, the legend of the bogeyman is of a malevolent entity who focuses his wrath upon children who’ve been misbehaving. He will either scare them by appearing t...
Jan Harold Brunvand was a pioneer in the research of urban legends and even in popularizing the term “urban legend.” His first was 1981’s The Vanishing Hitchhiker, named after the persistent story of someone picking up a hitchhiker who mysteriously vanishes, often while the car is still moving. The hitchhiker in this film is a lot more sinister. Th...
This is another film that was partially based on urban legend and partially based on real-life events. Although rumors that psychopaths routinely lace Halloween candy with razor blades have been a persistent element of American pop culture for decades, the only verified case of this ever happening was a 1974 incident when Ronald Clark O’Bryan, faci...
A persistent urban legend—and urban legends are characterized both by their persistence and their unverifiable nature—is called “pass by catastrophe,” which claims that many colleges have a policy where if your dorm roommate dies or is killed during a semester, you will receive straight A’s in all subjects merely because of the trauma. In The Curve...
One of the most famous urban legends of all time is that of the “snuff film,” wherein women are trapped in a scenario wherein they are raped, tortured, and then murdered all while being filmed on camera. Years ago, Charlie Sheen saw a Japanese gore film called Guinea Pig that he found so realistic, he reported it to the police. In 8mm, Nicolas Cage...
As with The Curve, Dead Man on Campus is based on the urban legend of “pass by catastrophe,” wherein a failing student can get a passing grade if their roommate dies. In the dark comedy Dead Man on Campus, two roommates named Cooper and Josh seek to find another roommate whom they can mentally torture into killing himself. Their first target turns ...
This film as well is its sequels—Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) and the direct-to-video Urban Legends: Bloody Mary(2005)—all focus on popular urban legends to deliver the horror. The first film centers around murders on the campus of a tony New England university that all seem to be modeled on well-known urban legends, including snuff films and th...
This ingeniously marketed found-footage film—which also launched a craze of copycat films—made $140 million on a paltry budget of only $30,000. The filmmakers circulated flyers at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival claiming the film was real and that it had been shot by three hikers who’d been killed under mysterious circumstances. The legend goes bac...
- Chrissy Stockton
- Stephen Holland
- The Wicker Man (1973) The Wicker Man was based on urban legends about ritualistic pagan communities. The Wicker Man. Release Date. August 7, 1974. Director.
- Black Christmas (1974) Black Christmas was inspired by the urban legend of the babysitter and the man upstairs. Release Date. December 20, 1974.
- Candyman (1992) Candyman was based on the urban legend of the Candyman. The Candyman was an urban legend whose origins dates back generations and related to the murderous soul with a hook for a hand who appeared after “you said his name three times in the mirror.”
- The Mothman Prophecies (2002) The Mothman Prophecies was based on a West Virginia urban legend from the 1960s. The Mothman Prophecies claimed to be about real events that took place between November 1966 and December 1967 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and while some aspects were taken from real life it was largely inspired by urban legends.
- Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007) The Slit-mouthed Woman (or Kuchisake-onna) is a Japanese vengeance spirit armed with a pair of shears. An onryō, to be specific.
- The Barrens (2012) — The Jersey Devil. Deep in the Pine Barrens forest lurks an unholy creature known as the Jersey Devil. It's physically described as a bipedal demon with a goat head and wings like a bat.
- Hell Fest (2018) — Corpses in Haunted Houses. There are various accounts of dead bodies being used as props in haunted houses and ghost trains. But are they true?
- Black Christmas (1974) — The Babysitter & The Man Upstairs. You know the story, and you know the twist. For those unaware, "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" concerns a young woman who is tormented by a crazed prank caller as she babysits some kids.
Dec 13, 2023 · This list answers the questions, "What are the best urban legend movies?" and contains items like The Mothman Prophecies and Pom Poko. Various bits of information are included with these popular urban legend movies, such as who directed them, when they were released and who starred in the films.
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Sep 25, 1998 · 1 Video. 99+ Photos. Horror Mystery Thriller. A college student suspects a series of bizarre deaths are connected to certain urban legends. Director. Jamie Blanks. Writer. Silvio Horta. Stars. Jared Leto. Alicia Witt. Rebecca Gayheart. See production info at IMDbPro. STREAMING. +2. Add to Watchlist. Added by 44.2K users. 500 User reviews.
